Arthur Edward Smith
Date of birth: 15.1.1892
Date of death: 23.11.1917
Area: Castleford
Regiment: Royal Army Medical Corps
Family information: Son of Arthur Edward and Emma Smith of Hepworth House, Wheldon Road, Castleford
Rank: Private
Service number: 43293
War Service
Private AE Smith was a member of the 146th Field Ambulance, Royal Army Medical Corps during World War 1, attached to the 233rd Brigade of the 75th Division. This army was headed by General Allenby and included Major T.E. Lawrence of Arabia. The army was fighting to capture Jerusalem from the Turk, allies of Germany.
PTE.A.E. Smith’s job was to administer medical aid on the front line and to carry the wounded back to a casualty clearing station behind his own lines. He would have to attend to serious battlefield injuries such as head and chest wounds and missing limbs, as well as gas, gangrene, trench foot, shellshock and head and body lice.
He was killed aged 26 at the Battle of Nabi Samweil on the 23rd November 1917. Jerusalem was captured on the 9th December 1917. He is buried in Jerusalem War Cemetery, Israel, cared for by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
